I__. - International Military Testing Association

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treatment of these notions in relation to prior research has been done and reported elsewhere.
For the military commander, regardless of appointment, as well as for other vocations, the distinction
between “discipline” and “initiative” is important. The commanders of sections, platoons, companies,
battalions, divisions, corps, armies, who can handle both the determinate and indeterminate
aspects of their responsibilities would appear to project a number of advantages as follows:
� the commander would cope more effectively with both foreseen and unforeseen events,
� the commander would require substantially less attention or supervision, and
� the commander would have a greater capacity to assume authority.
Within the context of the military commander some of the research questions we propose to ask in
relation to Discipline, Initiative and the capacity to Improvise are as follows:
� How is discipline developed? � How is initiative developed? . How do discipline and
initiative interact? � How does “disciplined initiative” influence improvisation outcomes?
3. The maior prouositions are listed as follows:
� the more a person experiences intimate, emotional, idealistic and reinforcing socialization
experience, the more a person will have the propensity to exercise “disciplined initiative” under
conditions of uncertainty;
� the more a person exercises “disciplined initiative” under conditions of uncertainty, the
more a person will be able to exploit available options (improvise) in a battle situation;
. the more opportunities the person has to rehearse battle scenarios under controlled conditions,
the more the person ‘will exercise appropriate “disciplined initiative” decisions and actions;
and,
� the more a person acquires and copes with difficult assignments, the more a person will
continue to exercise “disciplined initiative” under conditions of uncertainty.
The matrix at Figure 1 shows the importance of DISCIPLINED INITIATIVE to the Military Commander.
Clearly, it is important to design and deliver a curriculum of continuing training and education
that will result in the bulk of the Commanders belonging to the upper left quadrant, and none
found in the lower right quadrant.
Copyright SSC PAR DIV Mar 1990
HIGH
HIGH 4-e LOW
IMPLICATIONS OF DISCIPLINE AND INITIATIVE FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THE MILITARY COMMANDER
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